BiUM is a very small concept bureau. Once in a while, only when there is a nice challenge, we work from a remote food garden of an estate in the center of the Netherlands. BiUM is concerned with the question of how designed space can best contribute to a fruitful human existence. This is about more (or less) than mere figures, technology and functionality.
Het Zwaluwgebouw (i.c.w. Noud Paes), Southern Area, Village Micro Housing, Courthouse Zuidas PPS (i.c.w. Heymans a.o.), Pavilion De Dame Groningen (i.c.w. UC Architects), Carnival Training Centre Almere (i.c.w. PdR Architecten, ZUS, Van Rossum, Dura Vermeer), Vechtdal (i.c.w. UrbanXchange), The Tube Warschau (i.c.w. University Warsaw), Green Park Aalsmeer (i.c.w. Total Identity, H+N+S, Twynstra Gudde), Buildings Move (i.c.w. PdR, Fakton, Arup), Brettenzone Amsterdam, Diemerpark Amsterdam (i.c.w. Total Identity), Eemcentrum Amersfoort (i.c.w, Boer en Croon)
In M., people used to swim in the river. When you stepped into the water and walked a few meters, you would feel the current and force of the water. Later, part of the river was marked off with beaters and rope – delineating where you could swim. A diving board was installed. During the swim you could still feel some of the current and the slippery bottom when you stretched your legs. And you could also see the cows on the other side of the river. (meer…)
We are now working on designing houses for people who actually would not have thought that they would be able to owe a house in their lives. These houses barely use energy and they are being cleverly financed, such that they are affordable. It is often the case in this segment of the market that work is being done somewhat routinely, because there is not much to choose and the supply is scarce. That is exactly why we are going to design houses that express something different. These houses are based on the love for those who will inhabit them for an entire, or half of their life. That much seems fair to us, houses in which people will feel somewhat better, even if it is just now and then or only for a little while.
An exterior door, a vestibule, another door, and then a silent space where light fell in from above. The small buildings appeared in several cities, more or less simultaneously. Always on an inconspicuous place; never on the middle of a square or overtly visible. Sometimes they relocated. That also explains why it took some time before people ascertained the existence of these silent spaces; constantly the same design, simple and self-evident. The door was opened in the morning and closed at dusk. It turned out that silence in the center of town attracted ever more visitors. Nobody talked about the reason why.
The inhabitants of the city K. felt the earth shaking for several years now. And everybody knew that the stronger tremblings would eventually approach the city. The first cracks were, indeed, appearing here and there. That is why the people were very cautious and during day- and nighttime they involuntarily watched what was happening beneath them. The inhabitants of the city K. almost never looked up. And so they didn’t notice that between themselves and the world above very lightly constructed buildings were forming that floated above the existing buildings. As if the city K. was trying to disengage itself from the unreliable earth and had far more confidence in the laws of thin air.
They envisioned a new city that did not develop from the centre. This city had to arise differently; from the outside to the inside. First an outer ring is designed and realized; it takes two hours to walk around. This as the eventual size of the city as regards its surroundings And then a smaller ring emerges, directed more towards the centre. In the middle an empty space, a vacuum, that fills itself from the outside to the inside. (meer…)
